Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Second of five parts: Leaders lead change

In
my first posting on this topic, I asserted that church leadership teams could
add to their tool bag by defining healthy change. However, no matter how important
our well-crafted definitions, they are worthless if we fail to do something
with them.

For
that reason, I believe that the second essential of change leadership is that
leaders lead change. On the surface, that may not sound very profound.
Nevertheless, some leaders do this well and others do not. Some know how to
move freely from the academic aspects of change to practical applications. What’s
the difference? How do leadership teams that lead well, lead?

Defining
characteristics

Teams
that lead change well have these characteristics:

·They
see change as a leadership responsibility

·They
create a clear path from today’s reality to their vision

·They
build change on a culture of disciple making and leadership development

If
we do not see change as part of leadership, it’s not likely that we will lead
change effectively. Scripture is not nearly as ambivalent about this as some of
our leadership teams. The pastoral epistle 1 Timothy 3 includes the skills of
teaching and managing in the job description of elder or overseer. This clearly
places on leaders the responsibility to steer the church in the direction of
biblical health.

Leaders
who consider change as part of their responsibilities not only follow the
Scriptural admonition to do so, they also see their role as “opinion leaders.” Everett
Rogers coined that term in his landmark 1962 work on change leadership, Diffusion of Innovations. (See pp.
26-27, 2003, Free Press). Leaders who lead change perceive themselves and act
as models who point the way toward healthy change.

Pointing
the way

When
change leaders point the way, it includes three distinct aspects

1)
They talk about the weaknesses of today’s reality.

2)
They paint a vision-picture of what reality can be in the future, and

3)
They construct a bridge across which everyone can walk to get to that
preferable future.

As
an example of this approach, in 2014 I worked with a “Strategic Focus Team” of
26 people at Cranston Christian Fellowship in Rhode Island to define a new
mission: Calling all to love God,
follow Jesus, and serve others.

However, they didn’t stop at merely writing definitions. Senior
Pastor Dave Gadoury recently reported, “This
is driving our push to excel in disciple-making through Sunday morning
life groups and the Gospel Project
curriculum, and in service through an Acts 1:8 team and a new local outreach
team.”

Disciple
development

Finally,
I have seen how effective change leaders build their leadership on the
discipleship of their people and the development of their leaders. As someone
recently told me, “Changed people change churches.”

Maturing
people are much more likely to be receptive to healthy change. They are also
going to be more understanding if their preference is not chosen by those in
authority.

Maple
Grove Evangelical Free Church in Minnesota is an example of a leadership team
that has built change leadership on these two primary qualities.

In
2011, the church concluded that they had too many ministries that didn’t align with
a Great Commission focus of making disciples. To address this
less-than-appealing reality, they created a ministry initiative called “Sharpen
Ministries.” This initiative authorized ministry leaders to refine or eliminate
ministries as needed to better align their programming with their mission. As a
result, they have increased their effectiveness.

I am also very interested in helping you with Society for Church Consulting matters.Do you have questions about training and certification? Email me at jim@churchconsultation.org or click on the logo above to go to our website.

About Me

I wear two hats. I am a church consultant operating as Barber Church Consulting, LLC. I am also the Executive Director of the Society for Church Consulting which trains and certifies consultants throughout the U.S.
My consulting services are built around the theme of vision. They are VisionTalk, VisionTest, VisionTune and VisionTeam. See my website for detail
Prior to my consulting career, I had a corporate accounting career from 1978-1995. I then joined the staff of Constance Free Church for fifteen years in Andover, MN (www.constancefreechurch.org) after previously serving on the board of Constance from 1992-1994. During my 18 years of leadership at the church, it grew from 200-1400. From 2003-2010, I voluntarily consulted to other churches as part of my ministry.
I have a B.S. in accounting from the University MN, an MBA from Mankato State University, and a MATS from Bethel Theological Seminary. In 2000, I was ordained by the Evangelical Free Church of America. I have been married to my wife Cheri since 1975 and we have 3 boys, and 5 grandchildren. I enjoy writing, playing acoustic guitar and golf.